Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman Alexander Wurz says increasing driver safety in Formula 1 would allow the sport to make the cars “way faster” and turn up the excitement factor.

The Austrian says that he would want to see a massive increase in downforce and speed down the line, but stresses that can only be made possible if the risk of injury is reduced.

"If I am a visionary for F1, I would make the cars ever safer, but I would than make them way faster," Wurz told Motorsport.com.

"But I talk of way faster, because we can make cars which go 280 mph (450 kph) and have way more downforce. We can then, when the cars are safer, race on the most extreme race tracks, city tracks."

Wurz, who this year lobbied for the 2017 introduction of the Halo cockpit protection before it was ultimately delayed to 2018, believes that a further safety push could allow F1 to do away with a number of current rules and features that make the championship less exciting for its fans.

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"We wouldn't need miles of run-off areas, so we wouldn't have the infringements which nobody understands anymore," he continued.

"The sole underlying aspect is that the fan at home needs to sit and think: 'I could never do that. Only the most courageous, talented drivers can do that.'

"Then I don't care about the rest. Because then my [inner] fan is excited. And we've moved so far from excitement.

"And if the cars are not safer, the race director will be forced to look after [the drivers], because he doesn't want to go to jail if something happens - and then we are backed into a dead-end road.

"My opinion is - make the cars safer and go very aggressive with the rest, because then we can, because a human life is less likely at stake. It will always be dangerous, if you drive at these speeds, as we have seen, but we are working against the probability factor."

The GPDA chairman says, however, that if F1 were to adopt this direction for its future, it would need to move away from short-term thinking.

"It's more my long-term vision - which doesn't work with some of the short-term vision people who are also around.

"I'm not sure if I'm right, but that's why we should decide as a group."